St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-09
How the People of the Nor
wegian Hospital City, Ber-
gen, Regard 1t.
The Theory That 1t Is Brought
On by Fish Eating Prob
ably Not Correct.
No Cause for Apprehension in
Americana Thrust at
Sensation Mongers.

| c0nSplcuOuSneSS and prominence OF your
widely circulated journal, necessarily
challenges great attention. | am con-
WINGED that you do not desire to serve
any other end than that of legitimate
! public discussion of what you discern
as possible danger. May L therefore
| be permitted to state the following facts
bearing on the case: The writer was
born and raised in the city of Bergen,
! Norway, where are located the only two
| hospitals in Scandinavia exclusively de-
voted to the cure or lifelong care of
sufferers from this deplOrable disease.
| The two hospitals contain from 800 to
| 200 patients of both sexes and collected
there from the entire coast of Norway,
| covering with its Vulnerable fjOrdS,
islands and bays at least 10000 miles of
| shore line. These two hospitals are
located, one almost in
THE HEART OF THE CITY
| of Bergen, city appproXimating $4,000
| people. The other i'll the immediate
suburbs, surrounded with fine gardens.
| One of these hospitals is some fifty
| years old: the other about twenty-five,
| and was built not so much because 1t
was wanted as with view of seeing
what more modern architecture and
| favorable surroundings would do for the
victims of this sad atffictiOn, for be it
borne i'll mind in Norway as well as all
other portions of the world subject to
modern civilization, the disease is stead
lily declining. What [ particularly de-
sire to call attention to, however, is the
well known fact that the residents of
my native city had just about as much
dread of these men and women thus
stricken, as far as cOntagiOn is con-
cerned, as the residents of st. Peter in
this state have of being
AFFLICTED WITH INSANITY,
because of the location of the state hos
pital for insane i'll their midst. These
patients. so far as they are able to be
about, have the perfect freedom of the
city. From earliest childhood | was i'll
the habit of meeting them on
the streets without veStige of dread.
Many of them are expert makers of
brushes, combs, etc, which they were
permitted to peddle on the streets. The
physicians in charge of them reside at
the hospitals with their families. They
are generally men of the highest stand
ing in their profession, and are cOnSe-
Quently greatly sought after i'll outside
practice, from which neither law nor
custom in any way debarred them. One
of them, | recall distinctly, was for
ten years
TIE MOST COURTED CLUBMAN
and considered the most eligible match
in the most cultivated and ariStOcratic
circles of Bergen society. On Sundays
it is common thing for the religious
and phllanthropically inclined citizens
to go to these hospitals, carrying flow
ers, fruit, etc, and extend such cheer
and favor as are possible to the inmates.
As child | often accompanied my pa
oh -, F,,.
almost entirely separated from their
kindred. Owing to the distance they
are brought. one could scarcely claim
any relative in the city. They inyaria-
bly, belong to the peasant class and, to
that class of peaSantry which occupies
the extreme west coast, getting pre-
cariOus existence from often uncertain
fishing. Whether or not the fish diet
these men consume is responsible, for
the disease is something the greatest
medical experts differ Oh. What is far
more likely, is that
GENERATIONS OF TOILERs
subsisting on poor diet in general,
mixed with very bad whisky, subject to
months of exposure in an extremely
damp, cold climate, forced during the
winter time particularly to sleep and
work in the same clothes, crowded into
miserable lodging houses, badly built,
because serving only temporary pur-
pOSe-conditiOnS like these and inter
marriage between this particular and
almost isolated class of fishermen-peas-
ants, appear to be the underlying
causes. That this is so is atteSted by
the fact that very often the further
progress of the disease is arrested as
soon as the patient is transferred to the
hospital and put under more natural
conditions of existence. Whether or
not this ailment is contagious, at least
in the form in which it appears in North
ern Europe, is point on which the
greatest experts have been unable to
reach an
DEFINITE CONCLUSION.
1t will be borne in mind that neceS-
Sarily the character of this ailment diff
fers and is modified in its manifesto
tons in cold Northern climate from
what it would develop in Palestine or
OH the Sandwich islands. DR.. Daniels,
of Bergen, is a recognized authority the
world over in this branch of medical
science. After thirty years of actual
residence among those afflicted he was
the very perSonificatiOn of health and
vigOr. and was present some years ago
at medical congress in Paris, after
more than half century of experience
of meeting men and women afflicted
with more or less leprOSy i'll the streets
of Bergen. The citizens feel no more
apprehension from their two hospitals,
containing these unfOrtunateS, than
they do from the yellow fever hospitals
in New Orleans. These are the actual
facts in the case.
THE PUBLIC APPREHENSION,
therefore, which has been aroused by
some highly seasoned asinine press
dispatches, is absolutely without basis
in fact. OF course it is eminently
proper that the patients in question
should at once be put under proper
medical care whenever discovered. The
Scandinavian race of to-day, including
the Swedish Finlanders and Icelanders,
represent total of about 100000.
They are in descent and general race
characteristics identical with the great
AnglO-SaXOn and German types. The
fact that they occupy the northwestern
frontier of Europe simply means that
their fOrefatherS were the banner bear
ers, the pioneers of new homes. the
most venturesOme and the pluckiest
sons of the great Aryan family. The
Northwest has welcomed 100000 of
them. Uncle Sam has granted them
THE ONLY BOON
they have asked-the privilege to toll.
IHOy nav WI h0u Will VIII, anu
while all Scandinavians freely concede
the commercial generalship to the sons
to the manner born, we claim a front
rank among the rank and file who have
made the Northwest what it is. Out of
nearly a million immigrants of the
Scandinavian race, doubt if there are
5000 of them belonging to the class of
fishermen peasants referred to- L do not
believe that there are one dozen anthem
ticated cases in the entire United States
from this class, land from the above facts
you will see how utterly unfounded are
the fears sought to be nursed by sensa-
tional correspondents. The Scandina-
VANS are to-day what they always have
been, among the most vigorous and
morally wholesome nations in the